


Death of a Hero

by Kiitsu



Category: Assassin's Creed - All Media Types
Genre: Drama, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-17
Updated: 2017-05-17
Packaged: 2018-11-01 18:33:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10927614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kiitsu/pseuds/Kiitsu
Summary: A prologue to an Ezio/OC story that i have begun work on. Altair has sealed himself in his vault when an old partner shows up to comfort him in his last moments.





	Death of a Hero

Sleep never came easy, and when it did come, the dreams came with it. They were strange dreams, that never really felt unreal. In fact, if she were injured in one of these dreams, she would wake up with the exact injury she had received. The injury that her body shouldn't have had since it was, in fact, a dream.  
It wasn't that she didn't like the dreams. Rather, she enjoyed them. They were refreshing, and made her feel free. She found that she always awoke in the same place and the same time. The late 1100s near Masyaf. It was a beautiful area, but she quickly found that the assassins there didn't take kindly to her feminine qualities. That is, being an assassin was no place for a woman. However, she was dreaming nearly every time she fell asleep, so why sit by and be a typical Arabic woman. No, she would do as she liked. And what she liked, or rather who she liked, was Altair Ibn-La'Ahad. He was full of life and talent, but was so brash that he got himself into trouble on a regular basis. She shadowed him every time she could and helped where she could.  
If he was running from guards, she was there to take a couple of them out before they made it to him so that the fight would go well. If a kill went bad, she would draw attention. If he needed time to interrogate someone, she was around the corner making sure no one so much as glanced in his direction until he was okay. She was there for everything, every kill, every mission. They had met on a few occasions but she as never sure he knew what she was doing. She would drop into a particularly nasty battle, take out a couple of the guards he was fighting and keep him safe until he could get away, then head back to wherever she happened to be staying for the night and wake up in her own time.  
The first few months of the dreams were, of course, rough. She had no formal training and had only joined the assassins because their morality matched up with hers. At the time she had also thought it was just a dream. That is, until she woke up one morning after a particularly violent night with her side shredded open and burned from a burning beam that had fallen on her, waking her up. Her parents had found her curled up in a corner, blood everywhere, trying to stop the bleeding. They had completely panicked and took her to the hospital. No one could figure out what happened and she didn't tell anyone about the dreams for fear of being thrown in an asylum. The second time still came as a shock when she found the cut on her arm from her sword slipping. That time, however, she was careful to bandage it herself and not tell anyone as she did every other time after. It became a regular occurrence. She wasn't going to give up. After all, she had put a lot into being what she was in her dreams already. Why stop?  
Eventually, after Altair had retrieved the Apple and become master, her dreams stopped. She never really found out why and was almost missing them. The dreams were a comfort by the time her journey with him was over. They had become friends without even speaking and she knew he felt the same. Towards the end of her stay he had begun to talk to her when he was alone. Telling her how much he wished to have a partner in the Order as competent as her. Of course he still assumed she was a man. She hoped that his life would be a good one. She had left him in charge of the Order and with the Apple he had retrieved. He would use it wisely, she knew.  
No, sleep never came easy. But it did come that night. And with it came a final dream.  
A pain shot through her as she gasped for air. She was standing within a large library it seemed. A man sat before her. An old man but he seemed somehow familiar.  
“Altair?” She said softly. The man's eyes shot up. So clear and full of life for someone of the age he appeared to be. A disc lay flat in his hands. “Altair Ibn La'Ahad. It has been a long time.”  
“Who are you? How do you know me, young one?” His voice betrayed his age much more than his eyes did. So weary was that voice, once full of life.  
She smiled, walking towards him with the grace and silence of the Assassins. “I know much, wise master.” Kneeling at his feet, she reached a hand up to place on his. “I remember Al Mualim. I remember when you defeated him.”  
At this, he looked puzzled. “You are young. You could not have been there.”  
“I know not how, only that I was. It was a shock for me to see you so aged. It is probably a shock for you to see me as a woman. Do you not recognize my robes? I was with you the whole way. Watching over you. You spoke to me on the lonelier nights after the particularly difficult kills. You needed someone. Know that I was always there.” Tears streamed down her face as she realised why she was here this time. Altair was old. She knew the door behind her was sealed. She was with him through everything and she would be here for his death.  
“You saved me on many occasions. Gave me comfort, however indirect, when I most needed it. I am indebted to you. But I must ask, why do you cry?” Altair removed one of his hands from hers to place it on her shoulder. She looked up at him, seeing his gold-brown eyes staring at her, tears streaming down his own face.  
“I have only appeared here when things are happening that I must be here for. I realised a moment ago that the person who has brought so much adventure and love to my life is going to die, and I missed so much. What cruel god is going to take you from me so soon when you have lived such a life,” She was almost screaming by the time she finished. She felt the weak tug. He was trying to pull her to him and was too weak. She fell into his arms anyways.  
He sighed as he held her, setting the disc to the side for a moment. “Young one, the gods may be cruel but they have their reasons for everything. If you are not meant to be here for my life then you are meant for another. We did not speak until now but your companionship meant much to me. It is good to finally see your face. The face of the young woman who saved my life so many times. I wish I could reminisce with you about how my life has gone since you have been gone but I cannot. I know my end is close and I must finish what I came here to do.”  
“You must have been a wonderful Mentor to the Assassins, Altair. I am glad to have called you friend. What is it you need to do?” The words were weak, shaky. And tears still fell from her shining blue eyes as she stood.  
Altair smiled up at her. “I need only seal my memories into this disc. I know that after, I will die. I have lived too long as it is. You must remain alive though. You must listen to fate. I know you are listening. I have lived my life as best I could, not knowing its purpose, but drawn forward like a moth to a distant moon.” His words began to echo in her head, as though said not by him but by another, in another time. “And here at last,” no... Altair's lips weren't moving. He was staring at the disc once more. This wasn't him. Not any longer. “I discover a strange truth. That I am only a conduit for a message that eludes my understanding.” She felt Altair's hand begin to slip from hers and stopped listening to the voice.  
“What do you see, dear one?” He asked, so softly it was barely a whisper.  
“A man, finding the Apple. He is speaking to me. I'm not sure why.” She responded honestly.  
Altair smiled and pulled her in close. “Good. Fate is already drawing you forward. I can rest.”  
She leaned away from him just enough to look at his face before kissing his cheek gently. “I will remain until the end.” She knelt at his feet and rested her head on his knees.  
“Thank you, my sister. For staying with me through everything. I could not have asked for a better guardian angel.” His last words were kind ones. Spoken in the darkness of a room with no windows or doors. She stood when she felt the warmth begin to leave his body. The tears would not dry for a long time, just as her anger would not cool at such horrible gods to have brought her here only at the moment of his death that she could not counter. He was her brother, her mentor, and now he was gone. But so was the woman she was. Her body faded from existence in the world she had come to know as a comfort.

**Author's Note:**

> So this is, as stated in the summary, a prologue to a story that I've been working on for a while now. I've started it time and again but never really felt the beginning very well until now. I hope to continue this into something more but as for now i am happy to at least have this up. So let me know what you think and I'll be working on the upcoming Ezio/OC. When i get more comfortable with Altair and his part in the story i will probably expand this prologue into a full blown story but as of right now i'm just not comfortable enough with his character.


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